Instant Pot Pot Roast

It’s decent food…
90m one-off

I wanted to make a pot roast, but with the oven out-of-commission and not wanting to build up the grill, I figured the Instant Pot would be a good approach. According to Cook’s Illustrated, it’s not so simple as just using the pressure cooker the same way you would a dutch oven on the stove.

Now, I don’t subscribe to Cook’s Illustrated. While I have really liked their recipes, I usually do fine finding other sources. In any case, all I have to go on is the linked article, so this is the basic process that I think I need.

One thing to note specially, this recipe doesn’t have the browning step at the beginning. I had planned on doing this on the stove in a separate pot, but based on this recipe, it seems that some baking soda and the long high temperature of the pressure cooker is all that’s needed to get the Maillard reaction going. Note my planned use of the stove, not the saute setting in the Instant Pot. Previous attempts at browning using the Instant Pot “saute” has been disappointing. Apparently, it just doesn’t get hot enough.

Ingredients

  • 2.4 lb. beef chuck roast
  • Kosher salt & pepper
  • 2 T butter, divided
  • 1/4 t baking soda
  • 5 – 6 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1 medium onion, thickly sliced
  • 2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
  • 2 large carrots, thickly sliced
  • 1 C beef broth
  • 2 t dried thyme (or 1 bunch fresh thyme)
  • Optional: 2 t fresh rosemary
  • Optional: red wine
  • 4 medium potatoes (yukon gold, in this case)

Process

  1. Generously season the roast with salt and pepper, set aside.
  2. Melt butter in pot on saute setting, mix in thickly sliced onion, carrot, and celery, add 1 cup beef broth.
  3. Add roast, optional rosemary, and 1/4 t baking soda to pot
  4. Roast at high pressure for 60 – 75 minutes
  5. Near the end of the cooking time, boil potatoes in large pot until tender
  6. Allow pressure to release naturally. Quick release can lead to meat at the edges to fray or even fall apart.
  7. Pour carrot, celery, and broth mixture into sauce pan and puree with immersion blender. Alternatively, puree in blender and add to sauce pan.
  8. Reduce pureed sauce with 2 t soy sauce, ~1 T butter, red wine, and a sprig of thyme on stove until desired consistency.
  9. Remove thyme, discard

Alternatives

Rather than cooking potatoes separate, at the end, try pretreating by holding at 140° F for 30 minutes before adding to pressure cooker at the start of the cooking. This is supposed to allow an “enzyme [to] alter the pectin in their cell walls, allowing it to cross-link with calcium ions to form a more durable structure.” This could possibly be replaced with Kenji’s microwave par-cook? Impressions

Made a really good gravy. The roast itself held up, but it wasn’t as flavorful as I’d like. I think I’d like to salt it better ahead of time. Preferably, the night before.